My Fish Are Dying...don't Know Why?

It certainly is strange...

My husband and I both happening to looking into the tank discussing the poor cardinal when it happened....He is now thinking its something to do with him shocking the fish as he never usually takes any notice of any of my fish, and the one time he does.....well... I'll say no more! :hey: I suppose he is kind of scary looking now that I think of it!!!

But seriously though....I do believe what got them was Columnaris as on further inspection and having read up on it, he had a whitening of his mouth and some spotting on his fins (not like white spot), plus some fin degradation.

I nearly certain this is what got him, not sure if that's what got the other guys - I guess I'll never know now.
 
yup i blame hubby too!!! :p

columnaris is often a secondary infection, something that gets a fish because their immune system is low from a previous problem or that develops because of poor water quality.

so if there was an on-going bacterial problem and he didn't like the higher pH then I wouldn't be surprised to see something like columnaris appear.

thinking about it the way he died hints at respiratory problems to me, like he literally drowned (yes a fish can drown, bear in mind when you drown the problem is not the water but that you suffocate). If there was a problem with his respiratory system and he couldn't absorb oxygen fully you could see why he would be lookign a bit under the weather today then as he really ran out of air he did a final dive to the surface, failed to get enough oxygen, lost consciousness and then drowned.

tryign to remember if columnaris can affect respiratory systems.

may well be wrong, just been sat here pondering what could make a fish die so suddenly and that's all i can think of.
 
Definitely respiratory got him in the end alright...his gills were going 90 miles a minute this morning....and the way you describe it is exactly the way it happened. It looked like he was trying to take one final gasp for air.... terrible to see.

So I guess he was laboring over this for some days, but I just didn't spot it.

I think their number was up from day one. Its just frustrating for me.

Anyway. Just for the record...here's what I read up on columnaris:

Symptoms:
White spots on mouth, edges of scales, and fins
Cottony growth that eats away at the mouth
Fins disintegrate beginning at the edges
'Saddleback' lesion near the dorsal fin
Fungus often invades the affected skin
Rapid gilling in cases where gills are infected

The gills filaments will disintegrate as the bacteria invade them, and the fish will begin breathing rapidly due to lack of oxygen. Less commonly, the infection will be internal, and display no external symptoms.

So now....sounds alot like it.
 
:sad: yeah that sounds just right doesn't it.

think your probably right that they were done for from day 1.
 

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